Creaghorn

hallo, since there are fighting bristols, would it be possible to make some early roland units also act like fighter squads? as long as i know early in war the two seaters, especially the rolands were used as scouts, before and along with the eindeckers, till newer scouts appeared in late 1916. rolands often escorted other recon rolands or other two seaters. so would it be possible to make some roland squads act like fighters, similar to the bristols? it might stop as soon as the first albs and halbs appear. i think it would be historically correct. what do you think?

thank you for considering it, sir

good it's an i pod now. some years ago it was only tuning tokyo

interesting read about the reaction time on a 95 mph fastball. i must say it's hard enough without knowing that schitt (as uncleal would say). usually on rockets like this i swing at about the time the catcher throws the ball back. or as we say, radioball, the pitch you can only hear http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/biobaseball.html

me too rocketing rabbit. you learned your reactions from running away from the bulls in your hometown, didn't you

olham and i had a conversation about attitudes in such situations. and i told him that primarily the task was to survive, then to make a kill or whatever. i compared it like heavy weight boxers who punch and jab, but at the same time protect themselves with a tactical attitude. when a boxer is in a disadvantage, he'll step back and keep his opponent away, if he gains the momentum, he'll attack. when the round is over they'll seperate , seeya in the next round. IMHO a dogfight was similar. when you attack, then, you should always know when to retreat. if you have the advantage, then attack, if your momentum slips away, then run. in real very very often dogfights ended with nobody killed. both sides grouped together again and flew home, simply because beeing exhausted mentally (the thrill of somebody trying to kill you), physically because of the g-effects, because the engine overheated, running full all the time, gunjams, exhausted ammo... in a sim it's more like a streetfight or mexican lightweight boxing. no sense when to retreat and just an exchange of punches till one lies on the floor. AI will fight till one side is vanished. when i see a mate in trouble, i try to help, but when i'm surrounded by 10 tripes, i sense a disadvantage, then i run. BUT, as i told olham, for me it's not "running away" but a retreat together. since AI is not smart enough yet to seperate and leave the area without beeing an easy prey, i fly away alone to the moment i can warp. after warping, the survivors are in my formation again. so for me that's like regrouping and leaving the area together. but since it's not possible yet because of streetfight AI, i do it this way. so for me no remorse, but saving my squadron mates.

that's a good point. i would never like the fantastic FM to get traded for having a bit better fighterskill. as long as i understand the roland_sqd whatever folder is only responsible for the own squadron. is it right? so how about just changing it in that folder and the own squadron is rated good or elite and the behaviour of the other units stay as it always was. when i do a roland campaign, then i can work with them and really defend. when meeting others in fighter campaign, then the AI behaves as usual. or maybe only change one or two roland squadrons to good or elite and if i want to do a campaign, then i can choose them. just an idea

report: i found out what the rolands are lacking. it's the same problem the nieuport 11's had some patches ago. the rolands do really good in height. they are not too good but no easy prey either. that's how it should be. but the reason they still crash is only when they get to treetop level. then they try to climb and crash tailfirst. so would be possible to fix the FM to behave better when low, like it was done for the bebes?

exactly. they don't do any fancy or uber moves like imho the bristol sometimes. all their fighting looks very realistic and they are dangerous. but they can't handle it for too long due beeing too bad pilots. so it would be definitely worth a try to make the own squad and maybe some others "good" or "elite" to make them little better pilots. in my squad i only get recon or artillery spotting flights, as it was in real. only thing i didn't get so far is a bombing mission. now i'm end of april 1916 and now are more eindeckers available to protect our flight. that's so much fun, honestly. i really care to get to the spot to recon. if it's covered in clouds, i go down to have some good pics. all that between the miserable weather and AA everywhere around you, wind is shaking. hairraising landings... feels so immersive. if any enemy scouts appear, the eindeckers attack them and my flight continues doing our work. if the scouts try to attack us and are not distracted by our escort, then we also attack and then you can see sometimes dogfights between eindeckers, rolands, bristol fighters and nieuport 16s all in one furball, as it just happened to me. i really care to get healthy to my drome so my photos of my gunner can be used and the possibly fallen protectors didn't fell in vain. the good thing is, at least that's my attitude, whith the roland squad set to fighter, i get the right missions and do my recon and spotting jobs, but if i get attacked, than i can at least fight and protect myself with my wingmen. i don't hunt in this squads. the other thing is, flying and landing two seaters makes you really appreciate the "agility" of fokker eindeckers

it's realistic to have the view somewhat above your guns. when you aim, you have to crouch a little bit. but if you are above your topwing, that's too high. when you enter the theater at the beginning, then try to sit purposely extremely high. then center your trackir in that position. if you then sit as usual, your view should be much lower.

so far i have done several hours of artillery spotting and other recon jobs. first i have to say, it's very thrilling to do recon jobs with the roland. even when nothing happens it's a hell of a job to come back intact. mostly the landings are very tough. first 2 or 3 sorties i broke the landing gear or groundlooped or something, but now i figured it out and my gunner does not have to worry anymore. i love it. usually when seeing enemy two seaters i let them go because i have to do my recon, not hunting. but if enemy scouts attack i hit also attack and my men defend theirselves quite good. the behaviour of the fighting rolands is quite good. but nonetheless there is a downside. mostly we are outnumbered because there are so far only 3-4 four in my flight, and there is never a flight 1 because there are no listed aces in my squad. but most important is that so far i've seen all roland squads are rated "average", so they try to fight, but are too bad pilots to survive. it would be good to see at least my own squad rated "elite", so they would know better how to handle their aircraft. i would like to try it but don't know how to change it. so my conclusion is so far, fighting rolands would be good and there is potential, they do well at the beginning, but the fact they are only rated average makes them still quite harmless. would be good to have it rated as elite, but only in my squad, so they would do a good/average job because that would make up their lack of flying skill.

you'll get used to it. in any case IMHO it's the most important thing for a sim. when i used it for the first couple times, i was also very exhausted after a sortie and needed a break. felt like i had 5 rides in a rollercoaster

http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aktuelles/aus_dem_archiv/galerie/00195/index.html very interesting read in the german archives. it's a kind of dicta or guide, written by MvR, which was sent to every german flying unit. what to do, how to do it, how to lead a formation, how to approach enemies... it's considered unofficially as his testament, because it was finished and sent by him on april 19th 1918, 2 days before his death. i have sent it several month ago, but i read it again and think it's always worth posting again every now and then. unfortunately it's in german.

i'll do it, although not bored at all but it'll take a day or two

i just started a bomber campaign in april 16, with the change into fighter_bomber in the squadron folder, as prop has suggested. the other roland folders i didn't change. i'll do my missions as assigned, and if i get attacked or if i attack i'll report how they behave. i had one test fight and so far they seem to act at least as good as the bristols, maybe even better. i'll report more when doing more missions

LOL who is this olham rambo? is he god? no, god knows mercy. olham rambo does not...

IMHO it's because of the many kills in such a short time. i think the manager can't manage such numbers in such a short period. if you would have 28 kills in 6 month, i guarantee you you would have maybe 25 confirmed with the same report you've posted. but since you have 5 kills each an every mission, and before the first pile can be confirmed, you have 5 more kills and so on, the manager rejects a lot of them. wich is by the way not unrealistic. as i said some weeks ago (but not my idea but MvR's, and the manager handles it unpurposely correct), butchers will have a lot more rejected claims than hunters.

no, you have to scroll down and klick onto the photos of the original pages. when it's shown you can click on it again to make it bigger. it's not the red fighterpilot book or a biography. i don't mean the stuff next to his picture at the top of the page. that's of course only some explanation.

thank you for your answer and sorry i didn't make myself clear enough. i would like to know if in the sim, when flying in this squad, my wingmates would act like fighters, when flying the walefish, or would the keep flying straight.

yeah. i would stay above the whole fight and wait till you all are shot down or have turned away, then i'll dive on him and do the rest and get the kill, like in the main fight in hell's angels

olham, as long as i found out there are different "versions" of engine failure. the rattlesound is always the same. you should always look behind and check if you have a leak. you should also check your fuel and oil indicator and watch if it's dropping. sometimes both liquids are dropping very slowly, sometimes fast. sometimes it's rattling and your pressure keeps intact like nothing happened. i like this variation very much. i wish it would occure every now and then without getting hit by a bullet, like it was in real. usually, the human logic would tell, if i'm in the air several 1000 meters, and the slightest thing on my engine is broken, then break off the fight, because you never know. by the way, IMHO the reason why your engine is hit is firstly because you offer your engine to their guns. i often get out riddled with holes against bristols, but an intact engine. the other reason i think is because they have twinguns, and because they are set as fighters, and fighters aim better than normal two seaters.

thank you for this information. do the flightmembers in this squad "fight" or do they fly straight like usually?

hmm. canned ravioli i like cold the best . tastes lot better than hot.

i know. at the beginning they were only fodder, and then they trained to use them as fighters and the first couple german pilots were pretty quickly shot down because it was unexpected. they thought it will be an easy prey and down they went. no, i mean the AI FM itself is too uber IMHO. the turnings and spins and all that. they seem too maneuverable for me. but of course i might be wrong.